ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by introducing Wat Thmey while trying to map the social and political role of pagodas within Cambodian communities today. It situates the Wat Thmey memorial within a history of Cambodian state-sanctioned memorial initiatives dedicated to the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge that started in the 1980s. The chapter looks at the key representational technologies at work at the memorial site: the display of mass human remains and the employment of an information board that positions the site towards an international tourist audience. It presents a series of Cambodian accounts and perspectives about the Wat Thmey memorial to illustrate the often ambivalent views Cambodians can have towards these kinds of memorial practice. The chapter outlines the varied and uneven way the memorial animates conflicted, resistant and uncertain memories of political violence. It contrasts these day-to-day accounts of Wat Thmey with a significant state-led commemorative initiative, the May 20th 'Day of Remembrance'.
